Muschamp Offered On-the-Job Training at Texas

An announcement out of Austin this afternoon that Texas DC Will Muschamp has been offered a multi-year contract extension that will nail him down as DC for the forseeable future and will lead to him eventually supplanting Mack Brown as the Longhorns’ head coach. Details of the contract are still being ironed out, but so far include a bump in Muschamp’s salary to $900,000 beginning in January.

It’s still unclear as to how long this grooming process will last as Brown has 8 more years left on his contract and is “not thinking at all about moving on.” Obviously, Texas is looking to secure the hot coaching prospects’ services before waves of other schools come calling in a year where there is a dearth of existing rising stars. His name is probably the most mentioned prospect around the country that has never held a HC position and Texas rightfully wanted to see that he stayed put.

Muschamp served as DC for LSU under Nick Saban, then promply left with him when Saban jumped to the NFL Dolphins. After that 2-year stint, he returned to college football and served as DC with Auburn for two years before two-stepping west to Texas this past winter after rumored dubious contract negotiations involving Tommy Tuberville. Known for his ‘enthusiastic’ demeanor, Muschamp has had mixed success in his first year with the Horns teaching his brand of defense.

This announcement today follows a nascent trend in CFB of naming successors way in advance. The best known example was the naming of OC Jimbo Fisher late last year to be the coach-in-waiting at Florida State, a move seemingly designed to keep a quality coordinator in place rather than have him poached by other teams in need of a new HC. Other examples have occured at Kentucky with Joker Phillips and at Purdue with Danny Hope.

It all came down to two things: Texas knew that other suitors would come calling and they knew Will’s proclivity for leaving…